Assignment Code: BPAC-101 / ASST /TMA / July 2021 & January 2022

Course Code: BPAC-101

Assignment Name: Perspectives On Public Administration

Year: 2021- 2022 (July 2021 and January 2022 sessions)

Verification Status: Verified by Professor

Assignment A

Answer the following in about 500 words each.

Q1. Discuss the meaning, nature and scope of public administration. 20

Ans) Organizing and using personnel and material to achieve a purpose or a goal is what administration entails. Administration brings together groups of people who coordinate and collaborate to achieve the desired outcomes. In other words, we must organise and direct people and material resources in order to attain the intended goals and objectives. It's a universal process that takes place in a variety of institutional settings. Administration is classified into two types based on these factors: public and private administration. The former is administration that operates in a government environment, whereas the latter is administration that operates in a non-government setting, i.e., business enterprises.

Nature of Public Administration

In terms of the nature of public administration, there are two major perspectives:

1. The Managerial View

In this sense, public administration refers only to administrative activities and excludes non-managerial tasks such as technical, clerical, and manual labour. As a result, according to this viewpoint, administration consists solely of the operations of the highest-ranking officials. According to this viewpoint, administration is the same in all domains because administrative practises are the same in all fields of activity. Administration is concerned with getting things done in order to meet predetermined goals.

2. The Integral View

According to this viewpoint, public administration covers all operations that are carried out in order to achieve a specific goal. To put it another way, public administration encompasses all managerial, technical, clerical, and manual functions. As a result, administration, in this view, encompasses the activities of everyone from the top to the lowest. According to this viewpoint, administration is dependent on the subject matter of the concerned agency, i.e., it varies from one area to the next.

Scope of Public Administration

There are two points of view on the scope of government administration:

1. The POSDCORB View

According to Luther Gulick, these seven administrative aspects are as follows:

• P — Planning: working out in broad outline the things that need to be done and the methods to be adopted for accomplishing the purpose in hand.

• O — Organising: building up the structure of authority through which the entire work to be done, is arranged into well-defined subdivisions and co-ordination.

• S — Staffing: appointing suitable persons to the various posts under the organisation, and the whole of personnel management.

• D — Directing: making decisions and issuing orders and instructions embodying them for the guidance of the staff.

• Co — Coordinating: interrelating the various parts of the work and eliminating overlapping and conflict.

• R — Reporting: keeping superiors and subordinates informed of what is going on, and arranging for the collection of such information through inspection, research and records; and

• B — Budgeting: all that goes with budgeting in the form of fiscal planning, accounting and control.

2. The Subject Matter View

Although the POSDCORB vision of the scope of public administration was acceptable for a long time, there was a reaction against it over time. It was subsequently realised that the POSDCORB actions could not possibly encompass the entirety of public administration, much less a major portion of it. This viewpoint asserts that, regardless of the unique nature of the duties they perform, all agencies face the same administrative challenges. As a result, it ignores the fact that different administrative agencies have distinct challenges.

Q2. Examine the impact of New Right Philosophy. 20

Ans) The following are some of the approaches that have influenced New Right philosophy:

Public Choice Approach

The main concept of the Public Choice Approach or Theory (PCT) is that individuals maximise their utility; as a result, politicians maximise their vote, and bureaucrats maximise their budget. As government develops to satisfy the preferences, interests, and needs of politicians, bureaucrats, and other interest groups, it tends to act against the public interest. Individuals are assumed to be egoistic, self-centred, and those who seek the greatest possible benefits or personal gains from decisions with the fewest costs, according to PCT. The implications of their decisions influence their decision-making to a large extent. Public Choice theorists assume that individuals; who could be voters, legislators, bureaucrats and lobbyists are guided by ‘self-interest’. The lack of proper rewards and incentives in the public sector is claimed to demotivate bureaucrats and politicians to a considerable extent. This frequently results in bureaucrats having no desire to cut expenditures or limit spending, resulting in bloated budgets. As a result, public choice gives market forces precedence while relegating government to a minor role.

Principal-Agent Approach

The Principle-Agent Approach seeks to comprehend the dynamics of the relationship between the "Principal" and the "Agent." The Agent is considered to not behave in the best interests of the principal, especially when the employee has access to information and has interests that differ from the principal’s. The Approach is founded on the assumption that two people are involved in the providing of a service and that they are not on an equal footing. The 'Principal' is the party who is engaging the other, while the 'Agent' is the party who is being engaged. These two are involved in the supply of a service, yet they are not on an equal legal footing. This approach focuses on the challenges that occur when the Agent performs work on behalf of the principal and pledges to provide the services that both parties have mutually agreed upon.

Transaction-Cost Approach

The Transaction-Cost Approach explains the requirement to assess the transaction costs of internal and external service providers before deciding if outsourcing is necessary. Williamson and Ouchi argue in a lengthy paper that the make or purchase decision should be based on the transaction costs of internal vs external provisions. According to Williamson, the firms strive to reduce transaction costs because it is critical to their efficiency and profitability. This approach can be used to assess the efficacy of various governance models and institutional arrangements.

The use of a Transaction-Cost framework allows governments to reduce contracting-related issues. It aids in the selection of contractors, contract design, and specifications for determining service quantity and quality. The contracting process can be examined and modified to maximise contracting's benefits while limiting contractors' opportunistic inclinations. NPM tries to emphasise efficiency and use contracts as an essential institutional variation in the delivery of public services. These models aid in determining the usefulness of alternative institutional structures, recognising the inherent difficulties and complexities of contractual interactions, and balancing the efficiency and accountability components of contracts.

Assignment B

Answer the following questions in about 250 words each.

Q3. Discuss Y. Dror’s Optimal model of public policy. 10

Ans) The metapolicy-making, policy-making, and post-policy-making phases of the Optimal Model have been identified.

1) Meta-Policy-Making Stage

Even before a policy is formulated, there is a stage called meta-policy-making. This is a preliminary stage in which steps are taken to better understand various facets of the policy that will be developed.

There are about 7 stages in it which include :

a) Processing values.

b) Processing reality.

c) Processing problems.

d) Surveying, processing, and developing resources.

e) Designing, evaluating and redesigning the policy-making system.

f) Allocating problems, values and resources.

g) Determining policy-making strategy (Ibid.).

2) Policy-Making Stage

The policy is actually formulated in the second phase, which takes around seven stages. This phase involves sub-allocating resources for the many processes under the policy in question, as well as real policy design, which includes identifying goals, analysing the costs and advantages of numerous options, and finally arriving at the optimal alternatives.

The different stages in this phase are as follows:

1. Sub-allocating resources.

2. Establishing operational goals, with some order of priority.

3. Establishing a set of their significant values, with some order of priority.

4. Preparing a set of major alternative policies, including some ‘good ones.

5. Preparing reliable predictions of the significant benefits and costs of the various alternatives.

6. Comparing the predicted benefits and costs of the various alternatives and identifying the ‘best’ ones.

7. Evaluating the benefits and costs of the ‘best’ alternatives and deciding whether they are ‘good’ or not.

3. Post-Policy-Making Stage

This is the final phase, in which the policy that has been formulated is floated around, and it involves a number of stages, including deciding how the policy should be implemented, the actual implementation process, evaluating the policy's after-effects, and finally taking corrective measures based on the feedback received in order to strengthen the policies.

The stages involved in the third phase are as follows:

1. Motivating the execution of policy.

2. Executing the policy.

3. Evaluating policy-making after executing the policy.

4. Communication and feedback channels interconnecting all phases (/bid.).

The New Education Policy, which is being drafted from 2015 forward, is the best example of Dror's model of policymaking.

Q4. Briefly describe the basic features of Public Choice approach. 10

Ans) The following are the basic characteristics of the public choice approach:

The characteristic features of PCA can be deduced as:

1. It's a method that's anti-bureaucratic. It considers bureaucracy to be an unmitigated evil that serves only its own self-interests at the detriment of the general good.

2. It's a scathing critique of the bureaucratic administration approach. It is assumed that, rather than operating in the public interest, the self-seeking administrator (bureaucrat) and vote-getting politicians generate goods and services for their own advantage. As a result, society's collective interest suffers.

3. It promotes institutional diversity when it comes to the delivery of public goods and services.

4. Consumer preferences encourage the plurality of governments and government agencies.

5. It applies economic rationality to the distribution of public services. It stands for a variety of democratic decision-making centres, decentralisation, and public participation in government. This is proposed on the basis that it allows for the encouragement of competition among government agencies, hence increasing the individual citizen's choice.

6. It encourages increased competition in the provision of government services.

7. To eliminate waste, it emphasises privatisation or contracting out.

8. It promotes the distribution of more information for the public good about the Public Choice availability of competitive alternatives to public services and the Approach at competitive pricing.

As a result, PCA promotes a political approach to public administration by situating it within the realm of politics.

Q5. Explain the concepts of Gender of Governance and Governance of Gender. 10

Ans) The terms Gender of Governance and Gender Governance are defined as follows:

Gender of Governance

The legal status of spouses, government regulations on childcare, the allocation of welfare benefits, labour laws and the sexual division of labour, and laws on rape, abortion, and sexual harassment all have an impact on women's life. As a result, only political tactics can be used to tackle 'personal' issues. Their central point is that gender is a matter of power. People recreate and reinforce the distinction between masculinity and femininity through gender relations. Gender organises power at the institutional level as well. It pervades various locations, including the Administrative State. To put it another way, the gender lens illustrates how male supremacy organizes/creates the Administrative State.

Governance of Gender

Calling into question the shaded borders that differentiate capabilities/potential traits on the basis of gender, giving priority to males over females, is part of a feminist approach to public administration. It also entails examining the governance consequences of these mindsets. This peculiar nature of the public — organisational reality, in which links are drawn between ideas of masculinity and public administration norms of professionalism, leadership, and neutrality; where working women bear the dual burden of housework and paid employment; are relegated to lower bureaucratic ranks; and a glass ceiling prevents their access to the highest positions of power and monitory row By constructing boundaries that exclude all but a few exceptional women from positions of leadership, such culturally dominant masculine patterns of thought and action benefit men and their interests. The examination of these boundaries is part of a feminist approach to public administration philosophy.

Assignment C

Answer the following questions in about 100 words each.

Q6. What do you mean by the concept of Functional Foremanship? 6

Ans) Functional foremanship is a factory system administration that allows for the presence of many foremen in various functional functions. Previously, factories had only one total manager who was in charge of the entire operation. For manufacturing workers, this manager or foreman was their only point of contact. A key flaw in this method was found by Frederick Winslow Taylor, the eminent engineer who revolutionised scientific management in the late nineteenth century. When he listed all of the characteristics, he was implying that an effective supervisor of that particular task or type of work was required. He deduced that no single person would likely possess all of them. As a result, the concept of working foremanship was born.

Q7. Describe the concept of Methodological Individualism. 6

Ans) Joseph Schumpeter invented the term "methodological individualism." It opposes the idea of society as an organism and believes that a holistic approach is deceptive. PCT contends that the person should be the unit of analysis even when analysing collective entities or groups, both as the basic unit of decision-making and as the unit for whom the decision is made. Groups, organisations, and even societies are nothing more than the (total number of) persons who make up their membership. While many other models discuss group decision-making, the PCA rejects group decision-making as legitimate.

Q8. What is the difference between Programmed and Non-programmed decisions? 6

Ans) Programmed Decisions

1. These are for solving day to day and routine problems and are repetitive in nature.

2. Rules and procedures are described for taking these decisions.

3. These decisions remain consistent for a relatively longer period of time and over many situations.

4. These decisions are made for solving both simple and complex problems.

5. Decisions are of routine nature requiring no judgment.

Non-Programmed Decisions

1. These are for solving non-repetitive tactical or unique problems.

2. Every decision will have to be taken separately by analysing and evaluating each problem.

3. Every decision is different and there is no consistency.

4. Such decisions are for solving complex.

5. Such Decisions require judgment in each case.

Q9. Briefly discuss the process theories of Public Interest Approach. 6

Ans) Scholars such as Theodore M. Benditt, Clarke E. Cochran, Walter Lippmann, and others advocated the Public Interest Approach as a scholarly study in the twentieth century. On the topic of the Public Interest Approach, there was no consensus among scholars.

Process theories are made up of theorists who define Public Interest by examining the political process that leads to policy formation. According to this typology, there are three public interest theories, each of which focuses on how public interest is met during the compromise or accommodation process. The main idea of this Approach is that it is more important to serve a large number of interests/individuals than to serve a single interest/individual. Conflicts of interest are inescapable in most cases. Beyond moral ideals, however, decision-making should be founded on practical and logical considerations.

Q10. Comment on the concept of Skepticism. 6

Ans) Postmodernism is sceptical of modern political representation and elitist culture because they are arbitrary in favouring vested interests and disregarding society's intricacies. Postmodernism, according to Agger, challenges elite culture and urges writers and intellectuals to articulate their views in "a new voice" in plain English in order to enlarge the democratic public sphere.

The Green Revolution in Asia, for example, has been extensively criticised for producing environmental degradation, income inequities, and degrading local socio-economic circumstances while eradicating chronic starvation. Postmodernists were sceptical of the legitimacy of imported policies and their impact on the original people as a result of such undesirable events.